Our invention relates to the construction of a hypodermic syringe and a device for holding the syringe while the needle and the medicant within the syringe are injected into a patient and then as the needle is to be withdrawn from the patient, a shield is projected forward and locked into position around the needle to shield the needle from accidental contact until the syringe is ejected from the device into a waste container.
In today's healthcare field, nurses and other personnel are frequently required to inject patients with medicants when the patient is known to have or may have a disease, such as AIDS, which can be transmitted by the patient's blood, body secretions or tissue. Accordingly, healthcare personnell administering hypodermic injections are seriously at risk from accidental contact with a syringe needle recently withdrawn from an infected patient. Instances of serious illness and eventual death of healthcare personnel from accidental contact with infected needles are well known. Various solutions to the problem have been proposed but with limited commercial acceptance. See, for example, the syringe assemblies shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,850,994 and 5,061,251.